


"Legacies," from Talia's POV (Part 1)

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [4]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: #Ihavenootherfamily, #אין לי משפחה אחרת, Developing telepathy, Episode: s01e18 Legacies, Fix-It, Gen, How canon misled you, Ivanova's a dick, Psi Corps, Sleepers, Teenagers, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 13:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10219790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: We now visit a moment in canon to show you some... shenanigans. (I will return to the rest of this episode later, hang tight kids.) This is how the beginning of "Legacies" would have looked, if canon had been entirely honest with you.The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!"Legacies," from Talia's POV, Part 2 ishere. Part 3 ishere.





	

**Author's Note:**

> You've read Kaia's fic, right? If not, go and do so [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10207466/chapters/22653818) right now. It's relevant.
> 
> (What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).)
> 
> Text in red is inserted by me. Text in [brackets] is my commentary. Text in black is the original.
> 
> All inserted facts are canonically true.

_Attention, shoppers. You can now find all your culinary needs at our kitchen on level 6. Fresh chocolates are on special while they last._

Ivanova: Ivanova here.

_The Minbari ship is through._

Ivanova: I'm on my way. Check, please. Come back here! Thief! Stop! Thief! Stop her!

Talia: Get Dr. Franklin.

Ivanova: You know this girl?

Talia: No. She's just taken a mind-burst. She's a telepath.

*****

Franklin: Readings are all normal except the EEG. What happened to her?

Talia: She took a mind-burst. She's a telepath, a strong one. I felt her when she took the burst.

Franklin: What's a burst?

Talia: Those born with psi talent learn to block the noise of other minds. Sometimes the talent needs to be triggered. Puberty can do it.

Franklin: She looks about that age. So it's as if a deaf person suddenly heard a rocket engine?

Talia: Exactly. She didn't know what was happening and her mind ran and hid.

Ivanova: If her telepathy just woke up and Psi Corps doesn't know it...

Talia: There's probably a genetic record somewhere, if there are any other telepaths in her family. I'll arrange for her transport to Earth. A Psi Corps rep can meet her there.

Ivanova: Negative. She committed theft. She's under station jurisdiction.

Talia: You're not being reasonable.

Ivanova: It's my call.

Talia: With all due respect, Lt. Commander, it’s not. This station is under Earth Alliance law, so crimes committed by human telepaths fall under Psi Corps jurisdiction-

Franklin: She's coming around.

Talia: How do you feel? Gently, Alisa. Calm down, and block out the voices inside your head. Relax. Imagine a wall inside your mind. Build it, brick by brick.

Alisa: I can't!

Talia: Yes, you can! Focus! See the wall. It'll go away as the wall goes higher. You'll only hear what you want to hear. Yes, like that. Just like that.

Alisa: It's better.

Franklin: So where did you get her name?

Talia: She can't control her talent. Her thoughts are broadcast. Alisa Beldon. Came here with her father.

Franklin: Computer, access: "Beldon, Alisa. "

_Commencing search._

Franklin: Came here two years ago with her father. Both Earthborn. She was l2. Mother's death recorded six years prior. No further information.

Talia: Her father died last year. An accident. She's been living on her own in Downbelow.

Alisa: Am I under arrest? I had to eat. You don't stay alive unless you got credits to pay with.

Ivanova: Don't feel bad about it.

Alisa: I'm used to doing for myself. My mom died young too, same as yours.

Ivanova: Stop that!

Alisa: What's the matter?

Ivanova: Never read someone's mind without permission.

Alisa: But it was so plain, like looking at you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything.

Talia: She can’t help it, Lt. Commander. As I said, she needs to be properly trained. The sooner you're with the Psi Corps, the better.

Ivanova: We still haven't dealt with the charges against her. Keep me posted on her condition.

Talia: Lt. Commander, is there a reason why you're interested?

Ivanova: Yes. She's not leaving here, Miss Winters. Not if I have anything to say about it.

Talia: Lt. Commander, please be reasonable. Alisa Beldon is not your mother. She is a fourteen-year-old homeless orphan. She’s terrified. The Corps can help her, train her, send her to school, give her a family-

Ivanova: Negative, Miss Winters. I’m second in command of this station, and she won’t be handed over to the Corps under my watch. That’s final.

*****

Ivanova: If you've got a moment for a personal matter? We found a young girl, an orphan, she's been living Downbelow. It turns out she's a telepath. Miss Winters wants to send her to the Psi Corps immediately. I think she should have a choice.

Sinclair: I agree. But does she have any other choice?

Ivanova: Not strictly, under the law. Miss Winters is right about that. But we’re far from Earth, and from the Psi Corps. If we can keep her under our jurisdiction long enough... Commander, what happened before... My mother? I just can't let this slide.

Sinclair: I know. Do what you think is right. I'll back your play.

Ivanova: Yes, sir. Thank you.

*****

Alisa: I appreciate the clothes. The other ones were getting ripe.

Talia: We should get you more before your trip to Earth.

Alisa: The Psi Corps pays for all this? The clothes, the trip back to Earth, my room and board at school?

Talia: It takes care of its own. All telepaths are a family, Alisa. You’re part of that family now.

Alisa: I haven’t had a family in years. Mom died when I was six. Dad died last year. I have no sisters or brothers.

Talia: In the Corps, we’re all brothers and sisters to each other.

Alisa: Dad and I came out here to Babylon 5 to start a new life. But he gambled away our money and we got stuck in Downbelow. I hate it here. I want to go home.

Talia: The Corps will look after you now. When you get older, the Corps will find you a job and a place to live. You’ll always have free medical care.

Alisa: Just for being a telepath?

Talia: Yes.

Alisa: I’m glad you’re here with me, Miss Winters. I feel scared and alone. You’re the only one who understands what I’m going through. What was it like for you, when your talents appeared?

Talia: I don’t remember. I was too young. But that’s rare. For most of us, the talent appears later, at puberty, or even older.

Alisa: So you grew up in the Corps?

Talia: Yes, on Mars. My parents were also telepaths. They sent me to live at the center when I was only five. I barely remember them.

Alisa: That’s too bad.

Talia: The Corps is Mother and Father. All children are raised at school. It’s how things are done.

Ivanova: Tell her what else the Psi Corps does.

Talia: Please leave, Lt. Commander. This isn't any of your concern.

Ivanova: Yes, it is, and you know why it is. So let me talk to her, unless you're afraid to let her hear another side.

[Note: Without the above text in red, Ivanova is refuting a "straw man" argument. How can she claim to tell Alisa "another side" when that first "other side" was curiously omitted?]

Alisa: Psi Corps doesn't sound so bad. I don't understand.

[Note: In the original, we don't see why she says "the Corps doesn't sound so bad," because what Talia supposedly told her was omitted. The scene curiously only begins _after_ Talia has said... whatever she said.]

Ivanova: Did she tell you what they do to those who don't want to join?

Alisa: No.

Ivanova: Let me tell you a story. It's about a woman who fell in love, got married, had children. One problem: She's a telepath. She kept it from Psi Corps till she's 35. By then, she had two kids. The Corps told her to come with them or go to prison. But she loved her family and she refused to leave them. There was only one way they would let her stay. Every week, for 10 years, they injected her with drugs to suppress her telepathy. Every day she died a little, until she finally ended it by taking her own life.

Alisa: That was your mother. That's the image I saw in your mind the other day.

Ivanova: I have no love for the Psi Corps. You've every right to know all about them before you decide to join them.

Talia: Decide? Her only legal options are to join the Corps, where she belongs, or to go on the same drugs that killed your mother! You can’t be advocating-

Ivanova: I won’t stand by and let you brainwash this helpless girl and make her into another victim of the Psi Corps, not on my watch.

Talia: Normals make those drugs, Lt. Commander. They’re produced by a megacorporation headquartered on Mars-

[Note: In this time period, one of the major producers of "sleepers" is Edgars Pharmaceutical. (See Gregory Keyes, Deadly Relations – Bester Ascendant, p. 196-197.) This is the same company that later uses Shadow Technology to engineer a virus designed for one purpose: to murder or enslave all ten million human telepaths. Mr. Edgars is a psychopathic would-be mass-murderer who profits from the Earth Alliance laws offering telepaths the "choice" of these drugs. For Ivanova to blame the Corps for her mother's fate on these drugs may be consistent with her character, but it deserves a response.]

Ivanova: I saw what the Corps did to my family. They've ruined lives.

Talia: They've done good things too. [Note: Since this episode hasn't offered a single example of the good things she's referring to, I have included some examples above.] You've problems with the Psi Corps. I sympathize with your feelings, but don't poison her with them.


End file.
